Interview practice / 2 MIN READ
Ask discovery questions that change a sales role play
A fictional equipment-location case shows how to clarify the process, follow the answer and avoid unsupported product claims.
First confirm the simulated audience, objective and information you are allowed to use. Then ask questions that help you decide what to explain next. Discovery is useful when the answers change your response, not when it is a ritual before an unchanged pitch.
The fictional brief
For this exercise, you sell an equipment-location service for shared carts. The only supplied capability is displaying location records entered into the system. No savings, accuracy, compatibility or medical-performance claims are established.
The contact says: “You have five minutes. Tell me why we should care.”
One opening is: “Could I first ask how your team currently finds shared equipment and where that process becomes difficult? If location visibility is relevant, I can explain the capability in the brief and what we would need to validate.”
Follow the answer
If the contact says the existing process works well, ask whether there is any issue they want to address, then respect the answer. Do not invent a problem to rescue the pitch.
If they describe a difficulty, clarify its scope and who is affected. Ask what has already been tried and what a useful next step would look like. If the contact cannot quantify the issue, record uncertainty instead of manufacturing a return-on-investment calculation.
If they decline questions and request a short overview, adapt. Explain the supported capability briefly and make its relevance conditional on the customer's actual needs.
A summary that preserves accuracy
“You said the team sometimes struggles to find carts, but we have not established the cause or frequency. The next useful step may be understanding that workflow and who maintains location information.”
This summary separates the customer's statement from a proposed action. It does not claim the product has solved the issue or that an evaluation has been approved.
Try a changed condition
Have your partner add: “Operations cannot support any evaluation this quarter.” Your response should change. Clarify whether another timing or a limited information-gathering step is appropriate. Continuing the original evaluation pitch without addressing the constraint misses the point of the exercise.
The role-play preparation page explains how the workbook develops this practice through three progressively harder scenarios.